Tag Archives: Taylor Hall

As promised, here is the revised Top 50 Under 25 list that we initially published back in early January for Keeper/Dynasty leagues. Since we don’t cover much here in this column dealing with keeper or dynasty leagues, we figured this would be the most beneficial manner to toss something out there in a fairly simple manner. Also I’m told everyone loves a list. Not that you were anyway, because you’re much smarter than that, but don’t pay too much attention to the ranking number. It’s a highly convoluted process with attempting to mix current production with future projection along with other factors such as basic stat categories, age in relation to similar value players, and future playing time and line-mates for the younger less established players. Tie-breakers were awarded to players with an age advantage and/or those who are more likely to hold multi-positional eligibility.

As a reminder, as with almost everything we do here, these are penned with standard stat category leagues in mind. That means 6×4 or 5×4 fantasy hockey leagues that use the basic stat categories that usually include Goals, Assists, Plus/Minus, PPP and either (or both) PIMs or Shorthanded Points on the offensive side and Wins, GAA, SV% and Shutouts on the goalie side.

Just when you think Edmonton was a place you could walk into a get a win, think again. The Hawks came in from their victory in Minnesota last night and looked sluggish the entire night. Mental errors were apparent all over the ice as they let the NHL’s worst, beat them 5-2. Brandon Saad scored the only two goals with Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews collecting 2 assists. Saad’s goals were very similar grabbing rebounds off Ben Scrivens’ pads. Antti Raanta was also a shoe in to start as Corey Crawford played the night previous.

Dan Carcillo was sent to the press box once again with Teuvo Teravainen back in the fold. Tim Erixon and injured Kris Versteeg were also not in the lineup. Teravainen really made a statement making some picturesque passes cross ice finding Patrick Sharp, Andrew Shaw and David Rundblad on a few opportunities. He wasn’t that mighty with the sluggish Hawks being unable to connect on his standout performance. Read more »

As we foreshadowed two weeks ago, here is our maiden entry in the keeper or dynasty league sphere. We’ve ranked the top50players25 years oldoryounger to perhaps use as a guide for those of you in keeper or dynasty leagues that will be undergoing a rebuild, or continuing to rebuild your roster for the forthcoming seasons.

If you’re a hardcore fantasy baseball player, you may be aware of the 500 inning plateau for young starting pitchers. Meaning that around 500 innings banked at the major league level, you begin to see what a starter is capable of…on average. Data fluctuates a bit more wildly for hockey, but among NHL level defensemen, you start to see a similar maturation around their third to fourth and into their fifth professional season. This can be seen in Hawkland with DuncanKeith who was a 30 point player in his third year. He then jumped to a 44 point player in his fourth season and then soared to an elite level in his fifth year when he recorded 69 points en route to his first Norris Trophy. It was also true for BrianCampbell who rose to a 62 point season in his fifth full season.

With forwards the data is a little trickier. Some data suggests a forward peaks at 25, while some believe it’s anywhere from age 22 to 25. This is primarily why we’re keeping our requirements at age 25. Obviously this will vary wildly in terms of age range. MaxPacioretty broke out in his fourth year, but in those previous three seasons, he accrued essentially a season and a half’s worth of games. Then you look at a guy like Joe Pavelski who spent his first seven seasons becoming a prototypical second line center only to break out as an elite level first line scorer at age 29. Read more »

After dropping three straight contests, including an overtime loss last night in Montreal, the Chicago Blackhawks hosted the Edmonton Oilers in hopes of picking up a win for the first time in over a week. Despite falling behind early Sunday and giving up a freak short-handed goal, Chicago prevailed with a 5-3 win. Read more »

The Chicago Blackhawks spotted their opponents from Edmonton a four-goal lead in the first period before coming out to make a game of it. Unfortunately, the ‘Hawks could not overcome a pathetic start and lost their second game in a row 6-5 to the Oilers.

The game was dominated by Edmonton throughout the opening period. Niklas Hjalmarsson committed an early turnover in his zone that was gathered in by Ales Hemsky, but Hjalmarsson recovered nicely to prevent any damage. Damage was coming, however, as the Oilers scored twice in the third minute.

The first goal came when Mike Brown received a puck that was held in the Chicago zone and flung it from a few feet inside the blue line. The shot snaked past Ray Emery’s left pad and in at the 2:24 mark. A few seconds later, Sam Gagner completed a play that saw Nail Yakupov thread a pass to Magnus Paajarvi, who directed the puck to the doorstep. Gagner knocked in the pass to give his team a two-goal advantage. Read more »

Now that the dust has settled after a weekend of NHL record setting, it was time for the Blackhawks to shift the focus toward the young guns from Edmonton. This was the first meeting between these two teams this season.

If we take a second to remember last season, the Oilers dominated the Hawks with Sam Ganger recording an 8 point night during one of the contests in northern Alberta. So, it would be sort of fitting if the Hawks were to have their record streak broken by the hands of these Oilers. However, the Oilers were missing one of their top forwards in Taylor Hall. He was serving his second game of a 2 game suspension for a vicious open ice hit on Wild’s forward Cal Clutterbuck. This would slightly deplete an already star-studded Oilers’ line up.

On the other hand, the Hawks were missing second line center, Dave Bolland, who suffered an upper body injury during the Sharks game on Friday and missed Sunday night’s game against Columbus. Read more »

The Blackhawks returned to the scene of perhaps the lowest point of the season in their 9-2 drubbing at the hands of Edmonton in November. It was another nightmarish game for the ‘Hawks at Rexall Place as the Oilers came very close to appeasing the “We want 10!” chants from the November game, winning by a score of 8-4 behind an eight-point effort from Sam Gagner.

Jamal Mayers got things started 6:29 into the first period. He took a wrist shot a couple strides into the zone and the puck found it’s way past Dubnyk to the short side. The goal was Mayer’s fifth of the season and second in as many games.

Chicago carried the 1-0 lead into the first intermission and then Patrick Sharp extended it further 40 seconds into the second period. Patrick Kane robbed Ryan Smyth of the puck in the neutral zone and carried it into the zone with a 2-on-1 advantage. Kane set up Sharp for the one-timer, which beat Dubnyk between the legs as he slid across the crease. Read more »

The Edmonton Oilers captured their second consecutive win against the Chicago Blackhawks with a 4-3 win Monday night at the United Center. Edmonton’s power play unit struck twice after a major penalty was called against Daniel Carcillo and the visitors were able to hold onto the lead despite a late push from the Blackhawks.

Jonathan Toews opened scoring at 12:54 of the first period. He did not get a lot on his shot from the slot, but it nonetheless slid on the ice and beat Dubnyk inside the post to the glove side. Carcillo set up the chance with a steal in the neutral zone and a pass onto the stick of Toews.

The tide turned when Carcillo was called for a five minute boarding major in the second period. Skating in on the forecheck, Carcillo threw Oiler’s defenseman Tom Gilbert into the boards head first before either player had touched the puck. Gilbert ended up rolling on Carcillo’s left leg, so both players ended up injured and would not return to the game. Read more »

I received an e-mail from a customer while attending a sales meeting Monday morning. It simply read, “I think that Edmonton just scored again!” To say the Oilers, and to a lesser extent the Flames, knocked us off our high horse would be an understatement. In an inadvertent way, I may have contributed to the “narrow” defeats in Alberta over the weekend – more on that later. Suffice it to say the ephemeral joy we experienced in Vancouver two days before being thrown into the depths of despair, dissipated quicker than a cowboy trying to stay on the much ballyhooed bull Bushwhacker. In retrospect, we were bushwhacked in Alberta, there’s no other way to put it. Oh, and weren’t the rubes in the frozen tundra having a time, “We want 10, want 10!” Not satisfied with a win, they wanted to rub our nose in it.

One of the few positives that could be taken away from that game was the Oilers only ended up with 9 – ha!, in your face Edmonton fans, in your face.

In professional Bull riding, 8 is the magic number. The cowboy who can stay on the bull for 8 seconds, has grabbed the bull by the horns so to speak. Currently, there is a bull on the rodeo circuit who has never been ridden, successfully. The closest anyone has come is 6.65 sec. Most ca-boys don’t make it past 3.5 seconds. We caught of first glance of the bull called Bushwhacker a few Sundays ago. My wife hollered down to my son, “Greg come here for a second, this is what a real man looks like,” as the crazy cowboy prepared himself in the chute. You could feel the excitement in the announcer’s voice just prior to the gate opening, waiting for the 1,500# ballerina like bull to be set free. The rider lasted less than four seconds, and Bushwhacker spent at least 3.5 seconds with all four hooves in the air. For the 28th consecutive time, Bushwhacker launched a cowboy into space. As the saying goes, “What goes up must come down,” and as the rider, (I’m going to call him Duncan), flew off the bull, the clowns were sent in to pick up the pieces. Read more »

The speed and skill of the Oilers put the Blackhawks on their heels early and the result was the worst whooping of the year for Chicago. Careless play with the puck and a parade to the penalty box in the second period sealed Chicago’s fate in their 9-2 shellacking at the hands of the young guns in Edmonton.

Ales Hemsky opened the scoring in the first minute by carrying the puck with speed into the zone and eluding a hip check by Steve Montador. The veteran winger had a clear lane to the net and beat Chicago’s starter Ray Emery over the glove.

Patrick Sharp knotted the game at one goal apiece just a couple minutes later. The first power play unit notched another goal after Sharp picked up a rebound off the post and beat Nikolai Khabibulin.

The speed of the Oilers started to wreak havoc for the Blackhawks, though, and the home team rattled off four unanswered goals through the rest of the first period. Ryan Jones scored a goal from a horrible angle against Emery and it was downhill from there for the ‘Hawks. Ryan Smyth’s team-leading 11th goal of the season came on a good set-up from Jordan Eberle, putting the Oilers up 3-1 just 7:32 into the first period. Read more »